K 


Main  Lib.    HtSTCft?   ■ 


U;t|^  I«b  of  ^tMhxt 

unit  xU  (§biitt\iunn  in  tljF 
Sltglft  0f  iEarlg  inrumrata  ^^ 
A  Ql0ntributt0n  to  ttf  ^  ^^u^titlf 
C^nti^narg  nf  tlf^  ^mnfB  ©all 
^  Ig  Jr.  Paarlfal  Snbtnrott, 
nf  %  ®riii^r  nf  JHriara  iitnnr 


®Ij?  ^nU  of  Bt,  CHlar? 


ITS  OBSERVANCE  IN  THE  LIGHT 
OF  EARLY  DOCUMENTS 


A  CONTRIBUTION  TO  THE  SEVENTH  CENTENARY  OF 
THE  saint's  call 


By  Fr.  Paschal  Robinson 

of  the  Order  of  Friars  Minor 


J^tjilaJipIptjta.  1012 


BX  ^^ 


-'-•n  Lib. 

HISTORf  i 


Slje  Sttlf  of  &t  ffllmr^  mh  3ta  Obfl^rtiattre  In 
tlje  ©gift  of  Earlu  Sorumrnta 

THE  celebration  of  the  seventh  cen- 
tenary of  the  Poor  Clares  which  occurs 
this  spring  will  doubtless  tend  to 
direct  attention  toward  the  story 
of  their  foundation.  That  story 
opens  up  a  chapter  in  medieval 
history  by  no  means  devoid  of 
interest  even  for  those  who  are  not 
especially  students  of  Franciscan  origins, 
and  it  may  not  be  out  of  place,  therefore, 
to  summarize,  however  briefly,  what  is 
already  known  and  established  about  the 
jj^jLJLJ^  Order  of  St.  Clare  during  the  most 
interesting  period  of  its  history — its 
infancy.  Inasmuch  as  I  have  been  taken  rather  to 
task  for  failing  to  throw  "more  hght"  upon  this 
subject,!  I  ought  perhaps  to  remind  my  readers,  at 
least  such  of  them  as  are  not  well  acquainted  with 
the  trend  of  the  early  Seraphic  legislation,  that  the 
whole  question  is  very  complex  and  controversial. 
A  just  concept  of  it  can  come  only  as  a  result  of  a 

!  For  this  and  other  notes  see  below,  pp.  28-32. 


g57'775 


4  The  Rule  of 

careful  study  of  the  Papal  Bulls  at  our  disposal. 
To  these  documents  accordingly  we  must  now 
turn  as  to  our  main  source  of  information  con- 
cerning the  Rule  of  St.  Clare.  It  is  no  easy  task, 
however,  to  tread  one's  way  through  the  thir- 
teenth-century rescripts  of  the  Roman  Curia. 
Indeed,  the  kind  of  research  necessary  to  disen- 
tangle a  connected  story  of  the  Rule  from  them 
is  one  in  which  only  the  most  patient  of  students 
is  likely  to  persevere. 

Any  one  who  has  already  taken  this  task  seri- 
ously in  hand  will  know  better  than  I  can  tell 
him,  that  the  chief  difficulty  in  dealing  with  the 
documents  in  question  arises  from  the  fact  that 
we  are  continually  encountering  assertions  w^hich 
cannot  seemingly  be  made  to  square  with  other 
assertions  of  apparently  equal  authority.  In 
casting  about  for  a  clue  wherewith  to  make  our 
way  out  of  the  labyrinth  of  these  seeming  contra- 
dictions, we  may  find  one,  I  think,  or  something 
very  like  one,  in  the  lack  of  uniformity  as  to  the 
observance  of  their  Rule,  which  has  been  peculiar 
to  the  Poor  Clares  from  the  very  outset.  No 
two  monasteries  in  the  Order,  even  within  the 
narrow  confines  of  the  Seraphic  Umbria,  appear  to 
have  ever  followed  the  Rule  exactly  alike.  So 
far  as  concerns  the  Monastery  of  S.  Damiano  near 
Assisi,  the  effect  of  personal  association  with  St. 


Saint  Clare.  5 

Clare  must  be  reckoned  the  dominating  factor 
in  the  observance.  Up  to  the  last  St.  Clare  used 
her  very  remarkable  strength  of  character  there 
in  such  a  way  that  everything  seemed  to  depend 
upon  her  individuality.  Perhaps  in  no  phase  of 
Franciscan  history  is  the  personal  note  stronger 
than  in  that  of  S.  Damiano  during  the  four  dec- 
ades the  Saint  was  set  to  rule  over  it  as  Abbess. 
It  was  far  different,  however,  in  other  monasteries 
of  the  Order  where  the  influence  of  St.  Clare  was 
less  felt  and  where  the  powers  of  the  Abbess  were 
limited.  In  point  of  fact  it  may  be  said  that  the 
way  the  Rule  was  observed  outside  S.  Damiano 
depended  in  no  small  degree  on  the  tendency  pre- 
vaihng  in  the  community.  Thus  we  find  the 
Clares  of  Monteluce  near  Perugia  obtaining  from 
Gregory  IX  in  1229,  a  BuU^  "ad  instar  Privile- 
gium  Paupertatis  ut  ad  recipiendas  possessiones 
a  nemini  compelli  possint  pro  altissimae  pauper- 
tatis proposito  servando;"  whereas  the  same  Pope 
soon  afterward  granted  an  Indulgence  to  those 
who  gave  alms  to  the  Clares  of  Vallegloria  at 
Spello,3  and  later  he  gave  to  the  latter  nuns  the 
greater  part  of  the  goods  (bona)  belonging  to  the 
Abbey  of  San  Silvestro  in  Mount  Subasio.*  In 
these  two  examples,  which  might  easily  be  multi- 
plied, the  point  illustrated  is  that  we  can  early 
distinguish  a  double  current,   so  to  say,  in  the 


6  The  Rule  of 

long  line  of  official  documents  dealing  with  the 
Rule  of  St.  Clare,  corresponding  to  the  twofold 
tradition  and  observance  which  date  from  the 
very  beginnings  of  the  Order.  Although  the  ex- 
istence of  these  two  distinct  categories  of  Bulls 
may  not  indeed  account  for  all  the  confusion  or 
the  apparent  contradictions  which  tend  to  ob- 
scure the  early  history  of  the  Rule,  at  least  it 
brings  them  into  some  kind  of  orderly  sequence. 
And  that  is  enough  for  our  present  purpose. 

It  has  been  truly  said  that  all  powerful  and 
permanent  Rules  grow,  and  there  have  been  sever- 
al stages  in  the  growth  of  the  Rule  of  the  Clares. 
During  the  lifetime  of  St.  Gl^re  herself  we  may 
distinguish,  as  I  have  elsewhere  pointed  out,^  at 
least  three  stages  in  its  evolution,  and  these,  so 
far  as  I  am  able  to  elucidate  them,  will  form  the 
subject  of  the  following  pages. 

Of  recent  years  some  well-known  scholars  have 
sought  to  show  that  what  we  now  call  the  Third 
Order  was  really  the  starting-point  of  the  whole 
Franciscan  Order.  They  hold  that  the  Second 
and  Third  Orders  of  St.  Francis  were  not  added 
to  the  First,  but  that  the  three  branches,  namely, 
the  Friars  Minor,  the  Po'or  Ladies,  and  the  Broth- 
ers and  Sisters  of  Penance,  grew  out  of  the  lay 
confraternity  of  penitents  which  was  St.  Francis's 
first   and   original   intention   and   were   separated 


Saint  Clare.  7 

from  it  into  different  groups  during  the  absence 
of  St.  Francis  in  the  East  (1219-1221)  by  Cardinal 
UgoHno,  then  Protector  of  the  Order,  afterward 
Pope  Gregory  IX. ^  This  somewhat  arbitrary 
yet  extremely  interesting  theory  is  not  without 
important  bearing  upon  the  evolution  of  the  Rule 
of  St.  Clare.  But  although  it  finds  some  con- 
firpiation  in  certain  early  documents,  such  as  the 
contemporary  biography  of  Gregory  IX,^  it  is  not 
yet  sufficiently  proved  to  preclude  the  view  still 
more  generally  received,  according  to  which  the 
Franciscan  Order  developed  into  three  distinct 
branches,  namely,  the  Friars  Minor,  the  Poor 
Clares,  and  the  Third  Order  Secular,  by  process 
of  addition  and  not  by  process  of  division.^  Be 
this  as  it  may,  it  is  not  difficult  to  recognize  the 
work  of  Ugolino  in  the  important  changes  made 
in  the  organization  of  Poor  Clares  during  the 
absence  of  St.  Francis  in  the  Orient,  as  we  shall 
see  presently.  We  must  first  touch  briefly  upon 
the  foundation  of  the  Order. 

To  begin  at  the  beginning,  it  was  during  the 
Lent  of  1212  that  St.  Clare,  who  was  then  rising 
eighteen,  underwent  the  great  spiritual  crisis  in 
her  life  which  it  is  customary  to  call  her  "con- 
version" and  which,  as  all  the  world  knows,  was 
brought  about  by  the  preaching  of  St.  Francis  in 
Assisi.     It   is   a   romantic   narrative   that   which 


8  The  Rule  of 

describes  the  young  girl's  flight  from  her  father's 
house  under  cover  of  night,  and  which  tells  how, 
having  forced  her  way  through  a  walled -up  door, 
she  hurried  out  of  the  slumbering  old  town  and 
down  by  the  silent  woods  below  it  to  the  wayside 
chapel  of  the  Porziuncola  in  the  plain;  how  St. 
Francis  and  his  companions,  who  had  been  keep- 
ing vigil  there,  advanced  with  lighted  torches  to 
meet  her,  and  how  St.  Francis,  having  cut  off  her 
hair,  before  the  little  altar  of  Our  Lady  of  the 
Angels,  clothed  her  with  the  coarse  "beast-col- 
ored" habit  and  knotted  cord  which  had  been 
adopted  by  his  friars. 

All  this  took  place  shortly  after  midnight  on 
Palm  Sunday  which,  in  the  year  1212,  fell  on  18 
March;  and  it  is  from  that  date  the  Poor  Clares 
reckon  the  foundation  of  their  Order.  And  right- 
ly so,  though  just  how  far  St.  Francis  may  have 
then  expected  or  intended  to  found  an  Order  of 
contemplative  nuns  with  the  cooperation  of  St. 
Clare  is  surely  a  matter  of  conjecture.  In  any 
case,  it  is  not  without  interest  to  note  that  St. 
Clare  in  the  document  known  as  her  Testament — 
whatever  its  witness  may  be  worth — tells  us  that 
while  St.  Francis  was  engaged  on  the  restoration 
of  S.  Damiano  he  once  mounted  on  a  wall  of  the 
old  chapel  and  cried  out  to  some  passers-by, 
*'  Come  and  help  me  in  building  the  Monastery 


Saint  Clare.  9 

of  S.  Damiano,  for  there  will  yet  be  ladies  there 
by  whose  renowned  and  holy  way  of  living  our 
Heavenly  Father  will  be  glorified  throughout  His 
holy  Church.  "9  What  we  know  from  other 
sources  enables  us  to  fix  upon  1206  as  the  year  in 
which  St.  Francis  undertook  the  work  of  repair- 
ing S.  Damiano.^" 

It  was  not,  however,  until  some  little  time  after 
St.  Clare's  "reception"  at  the  Porziuncola  that  the 
Benedictine  monks,  to  whom  S.  Damiano  be- 
longed, offered  that  venerable  sanctuary  to  St. 
Francis  as  a  suitable  retreat  for  St.  Clare  and  the 
women  who  were  already  gathering  round  her. 
In  the  meantime,  St.  Clare  had  been  placed  pro- 
visionally by  St.  Francis  with  the  Benedictine 
nuns,  first  at  the  Monastery  of  S.  Paolo,  which 
stood  on  the  outskirts  of  Bastia  at  about  an  hour's 
walk  from  the  Porziuncola,  and,  a  few  days  later, 
at  S.  Angelo  in  Panzo,  another  monastery  of  the 
same  Order,  situated,  as  is  now  clear,  on  the 
western  declivity  of  Monte  Subasio,  not  far  dis- 
tant from  the  Carceri.^^  But  the  claim  put  for- 
ward two  centuries  ago^^  that  St.  Clare  had  pro- 
fessed the  Rule  of  the  Benedictine  nuns  during 
her  sojourn  among  them  no  longer  merits  serious 
refutation. 

More  important  considerations  await  us  in  con- 
nexion  with  S.   Damiano,  for,  round   the   small 


10  The  Rule  op 

gray  chapel  there  among  the  tangled  olive  trees, 
a  rude  dwelling  was  built  for  St.  Clare  and  her 
companions,  and  this  became  the  cradle  of  the 
Order  of  the  Poor  Ladies.  For  some  time  after 
her  installation  at  S.  Damiano,  St.  Clare  was 
without  any  written  or  formal  Rule.  She  in- 
structed her  little  community  in  the  literal  ob- 
servance of  the  simple  form  of  life  she  herself 
had  learned  from  the  lips  of  St.  Francis.  The 
Seraphic  Father,  who  watched  over  the  rise  and 
growth  of  these  Damianites  with  paternal  solici- 
tude, soon  gave  them  a  short  formula  vitae,  as  we 
learn  from  St.  Clare  herself:  "After  the  Heavenly 
Father  Most  High  deigned  to  enlighten  my  heart 
by  His  grace,"  she  says,  *'to  do  penance  accord- 
ing to  the  example  and  teaching  of  our  most 
Blessed  Father  St.  Francis,  I  together  with  my 
sisters  voluntarily  promised  him  obedience  a 
little  while  after  his  conversion.  Seeing  that  we 
feared  no  poverty,  toil,  sorrow,  humiliation,  or 
contempt  from  the  world,  nay,  rather  that  we 
held  them  in  great  delight,  the  Blessed  Father 
wrote  us  a  form  of  life  as  follows :  '  Since  by  divine 
inspiration  you  have  made  yourselves  daughters 
and  handmaids  of  the  Most  High  Sovereign  King, 
the  Heavenly  Father,  and  have  espoused  your- 
selves to  the  Holy  Ghost,  electing  to  live  accord- 
ing to  the  perfection  of  the  Holy  Gospel,  I  will 


Saint  Clare.  11 

and  I  promise  for  myself  and  my  friars  always  to 
have  for  you,  as  for  them,  a  special  solicitude.' 
This  promise  he  faithfully  kept  so  long  as  he 
lived  and  he  wished  it  always  to  be  kept  by  the 
friars.  "^^ 

There  is  some  difference  of  opinion  as  to  how 
far  the  words  of  St.  Francis  here  quoted  by  St. 
Clare  represent  the  text  of  the  formula  vitae  of 
which  there  is  question.  Speaking  for  myself  I 
do  not  believe  that  this  fragment  of  St.  Francis's 
writings  taken  as  it  stands  can  be  regarded  as  the 
formula  in  its  entirety;  it  seems  to  be  rather  in 
the  nature  of  a  promise  accompanying  the  for- 
mula, together  with  the  incipit  of  the  formula 
itself.  And,  if  this  be  the  case,  Wadding  was  well 
advised  in  placing  it  among  St.  Francis's  letters, 
as  he  does  in  his  edition  of  the  Saint's  Opuscula.^^ 
In  any  event,  the  opinion  advanced  by  Sabatier, 
that  the  entire  text  of  the  formula  was  formerly 
inserted  in  Chapter  VI  of  the  Rule  of  1253,^5  ^an 
no  longer  be  maintained,  now  that  the  original 
Bull  confirming  that  Rule  has  been  recovered  ;^6 
and  we  may  safely  conclude  with  Sbaralea  that 
the  formula  vitae  which  St.  Francis  gave  St.  Clare 
when  she  was  installed  at  S.  Damiano  has  not 
come  down  to  us  in  its  original  shape.^^  go  far 
as  can  be  gathered,  however,  it  was  very  short 
and  simple — a  mere  informal  adaptation  for  the 


12  The  Rule  of 

Poor  Ladies  of  the  Gospel  precepts  already  select- 
ed by  St.  Francis  for  the  guidance  of  his  own 
companions  and  which  he  desired  the  Damianites 
likewise  to  practise  in  all  their  perfection.  That 
these  Damianites  were  still  without  any  written 
Rule  when  the  Camaldolese  nuns  of  Vallegloria 
embraced  their  mode  of  life  is  clear  from  docu- 
ments I  have  seen  in  the  archives  of  the  Clares 
at  Vallegloria.     This  was  in  or  about  1216. 

In  a  letter  of  Jacques  de  Vitry  written  at  that 
time  we  find  the  earliest  known  witness  to  the 
manner  of  life  led  by  the  Poor  Ladies.  "Mulieres 
vero,"  he  says,  "juxta  civitates  in  diversis  hos- 
pitiis  simul  commorantur,  nihil  accipiunt  sed  de 
labore  manuum  vivunt.''^^  g^t  it  by  no  means 
follows  from  this  testimony,  as  some  recent  writ- 
ers would  have  us  beheve,  that  the  Clares  did  not 
observe  enclosure  at  the  beginning  of  their  insti- 
tute. For  be  it  remembered  that  the  days  when 
women  might  have  the  privilege  of  sharing  in 
apostolic  labors  among  the  poor,  the  ignorant, 
and  the  suffering,  were  yet  far  off  in  1216.  Apart, 
however,  from  this  consideration,  there  is  no 
evidence  that  the  Poor  Ladies  at  S.  Damiano  or 
elsewhere  ever  went  beyond  the  precincts  of  their 
monasteries;  except,  of  course,  when  there  was 
question  of  making  a  new  foundation.  The  theory 
which  assumes  the  contrary  to  have  been  the  case, 


Saint  Clare.  13 

rests  on  evidence  which  seems  to  me,  to  say  the 
best  of  it,  slender,  and,  if  we  accept  it,  we  run  the 
risk  of  placing  St.  Clare  and  her  daughters  in  a 
position  for  which  there  is  no  warrant  in  history. 
And  this  leads  me  to  touch  upon  the  familiar 
chapter  in  the  Fioretti  which  relates  how  St. 
Francis  and  St.  Clare  ate  together  at  the  Porziun- 
cola.i9  Because  I  made  bold  to  affirm,  in  my  little 
book  on  St.  Clare,^^  that  this  charming  narrative 
was  quite  devoid  of  historic  foundation,  I  have 
been  criticised  by  Professor  Little  and  others^^ — 
all  in  a  very  friendly  vein,  for  which  I  am  most 
grateful.  In  answer  to  this  criticism,  I  should 
like  to  say  that  it  is  not  really  relevant  to  bring 
against  this  narrative  any  question  of  the  law  of 
enclosure,  for,  with  the  documents  at  our  disposal, 
it  is  well-nigh  impossible  to  determine  whether 
enclosure  existed  among  the  Poor  Ladies  from 
the  first  or  whether  it  was  introduced  at  a  later 
date.  I  may  add  that  I  hold  no  brief  one  way  or 
the  other,  and  that  I  was  led  to  reject  the  narra- 
tive as  apocryphal  for  wholly  different  reasons. 
,  As  we  may  not  enter  upon  these  reasons  now  for 
lack  of  space,  I  may  perhaps  be  permitted  to  re- 
turn to  them  at  another  time.  For  the  moment, 
then,  to  pass  over  the  improbabilities  with  which 
the  story  in  question  bristles,  as  well  as  its  incon- 
sistency, which  constitute,  in  my  opinion,  a  very 


14  The  Rule  of 

suspicious  feature,  it  will  suflBce^to  note  that  this 
legend  has  not  yet  been  subjected  to  a  critical 
examination  such  as  the  ones  under  which  other 
legendary  chapters  in  the  life  of  St.  Clare  have 
succumbed.  It  is  only  such  an  examination  as 
this  that  can  determine  how  far  Chapter  XIV 
of  the  Fioretti  be  true  to  the  letter;  in  any  event 
it  will  remain  true  to  the  spirit. 

And  now,  passing  on  from  this  digression  to  the 
second  stage  in  the  history  of  the  Rule  of  St.  Clare, 
let  us  note  that,  small  and  humble  as  were  its 
beginnings,  the  Order  sprang  at  once  into  popular 
favor  and  spread  with  amazing  rapidity  not  only 
throughout  Italy,  but  also  beyond  the  Alps. 22  As 
a  result  of  this  development,  the  simple,  familiar, 
and  informal  ways  which  had  marked  the  Insti- 
tute at  the  beginning  were  assuredly  bound  to 
disappear.23  It  was  Cardinal  Ugolino,  then  Bishop 
of  Ostia  and  Protector  of  the  Order,  after- 
ward Gregory  IX,  who  undertook  the  task  of 
reconciling  inspirations  so  unstudied  and  free 
with  an  order  of  things  they  had  outgrown. 
During  the  absence  of  St.  Francis  in  the  East 
various  troubles  had  arisen  throughout  the  Order. 
In  the  first  place,  Matthew  of  Narni  and  Gregory 
of  Naples,  the  two  Vicars  General  whom  he  had 
left  in  charge  of  the  Order,  had  summoned  a 
General  Chapter  which,  among  other  innovations. 


Saint  Clare.  15 

sought  to  impose  new  fasts  upon  the  friars  more 
severe  than  the  Rule  required.  Moreover,  John 
of  Capella,  one  of  the  Saint's  first  companions, 
had  assembled  a  large  number  of  lepers,  both  men 
and  women,  with  a  view  to  forming  them  into  a 
new  Rehgious  Order  and  had  actually  set  out  for 
Rome  to  seek  approval  for  the  rule  he  had  drawn 
up  for  these  unfortunates.  What  concerns  us 
more  is  the  fact  that  Brother  Philip,  whom  St. 
Francis  had  charged  with  the  interests  of  the 
Clares,  had  obtained  from  Ugolino  a  Pontifical 
Privilege  in  their  favor  against  the  will  of  St. 
rrancis,24  and  that  Ugolino  drew  up  for  the  Poor 
Ladies  a  written  Rule,  taking  as  its  basis  the 
Rule  of  St.  Benedict,  to  which  he  added  some 
special  constitution  adapted  to  the  needs  of  the 
Clares  as  he  understood  them.^s  In  connexion 
with  this  quasi-Benedictine  Rule  it  is  necessary 
to  recall  that  in  1215  the  fourth  Lateran  Council 
had  forbidden  the  establishment  of  new  Religious 
Orders,  lest  too  great  a  diversity  bring  confusion 
into  the  Church,  and  had  decreed  that  those  who 
desired  to  embrace  the  religious  life  were  to  adopt 
one  of  the  Rules  already  approved. ^e  It  was  in 
accordance  with  this  decree  that  Cardinal  Ugolino 
modelled  the  Rule  he  drew  up  for  the  Clares  upon 
that  of  St.  Benedict,  and  not,  as  some  infer,  be- 
cause he  was  fain  to  make  of  them  a  community 


16  The  Rule  of 

of  Benedictines.  True  it  is  that  it  began  "Regu- 
1am  beatissimi  Benedicti  vobis  tradimus  observ- 
andam,"  but  when  later  on  some  doubts  arose 
among  the  Clares  as  to  how  far  they  were  obliged 
to  observe  the  Benedictine  Rule,  and  Innocent 
IV  was  appealed  to,  he  replied  that  the  Poor 
Ladies,  as  a  whole,  were  not  held  to  the  observ- 
ance of  that  Rule  except  as  regards  the  three 
essential  vows  of  obedience,  poverty,  and  chas- 
tity; as  for  the  rest,  they  were  only  to  follow  the 
formula  prescribed  from  the  beginning  of  the 
Order."  The  important  thing  to  remember  is 
that  the  Rule  drawn  up  in  1219  by  Ugolino^s  was 
duly  confirmed  by  Honorius  III^^  and  was  adopted 
by  the  monasteries  at  Panzo,  Monticelli,  and 
elsewhere. 3°  Though  strict  enough  in  other  re- 
spects, this  Rule  took  away  from  the  Poor  Ladies, 
in  effect  if  not  in  intention,  the  characteristic  of 
absolute  poverty  which  St.  Francis  sought  to 
make  the  distinctive  mark  of  his  Order  and  con- 
formably to  which  the  Clares  were  not  to  possess 
any  worldly  goods,  even  in  common,  but  were  to 
depend  entirely  on  what  the  friars  could  beg  for 
them.  Such  a  complete  renunciation  of  all.  pos- 
sessions was  regarded  by  Ugolino  as  impracticable 
for  cloistered  women.  St.  Clare,  however,  so 
far  as  her  own  community  was  concerned,  resist- 
ed the  innovations  proposed   by  the  Cardinal  as 


Saint  Clare.  17 

being  wholly  at  variance  with  the  intentions  of  St. 
Francis,  and  there  is  no  good  reason  to  believe 
that  his  quasi-Benedictine  Rule  was  ever  put 
into  practice  at  S.  Damiano  or  that  Clare  and 
her  community  there  ever  deviated  from  the 
observances  which  had  gradually  grown  up  round 
about  the  primitive  formula  vitae  they  had 
received  from  St.  Francis  at  the  outset  of  their 
religious  life.  I  am  not  unmindful  of  the  asser- 
tion made  by  Gregory  IX  in  1238  to  the  effect  that 
the  Rule  he  had  himself  drawn  up  for  the  Poor 
Ladies  in  1219  was  still  "laudably  observed"  by 
Clare  and  her  Sisters.^^  As  against  this  assertion 
in  which  the  wish  may  well  have  been  "father  of 
the  thought,"  we  have  Gregory's  refusal^s  to 
sanction  the  statutes  for  the  Monastery  of  the 
Clares  at  Prague,  sent  him  for  confirmation  by 
Princess  Agnes  of  Bohemia,  because  they  were  at 
variance  with  the  Rule  he  had  himself  given  to 
the  Poor  Ladies.  Now  these  statutes  had  been 
drawn  up  by  the  pious  Princess  in  accordance  with 
the  observances  then  in  vogue  at  S.  Damiano 
and  which  St.  Clare  had  communicated  to  her  by 
letter.33 

Leaving  this  difficult  question  aside,  however, 
we  may  turn  to  the  assertion  formerly  rather 
freely  made  that  St.  Francis,  after  his  return  from 
the   Orient,   composed   a  formal  Rule  in  twelve 


18  The  Rule  of 

chapters  for  the  Poor  Clares,  as  a  substitute  for 
the  one  imposed  upon  them  by  Ugohno.  This 
view  finds  its  chief  support  in  the  fact  that  Wad- 
ding includes  the  Rule  of  St.  Clare,  confirmed  in 
1253,  among  the  writings  of  St.  Francis  under  the 
title,  *'Regula  Prima  Sanctae  Clarae,"  and  assigns 
it  to  the  year  1224.3*  Jt  would  be  very  unfair, 
however,  to  make  a  scapegoat  of  Wadding,  seeing 
that  Gonzaga  before  him  fell  into  the  same  error,  ^s 
If  I  speak  of  this  opinion  as  erroneous  it  is  because 
the  scientific  researches  in  this  direction  which 
within  the  last  two  decades  have  greatly  enlarged 
our  knowledge  of  Franciscan  origins  have  made 
it  perfectly  clear  that,  aside  from  the  short  for- 
mula vitae  written  for  the  first  nuns  at  S.  Damiano 
at  the  outset  of  their  religious  life,  St.  Francis 
gave  no  rule  of  any  kind  to  St.  Clare  or  her  Order, 
nor  is  any  mention  of  such  a  rule  to  be  found  in 
any  of  the  early  authorities,  as  the  Quaracchi 
Editors  have  been  at  pains  to  prove. ^^  It  is, 
therefore,  somewhat  surprising  to  find  so  well- 
informed  a  writer  as  Professor  Pennacchi  rehabili- 
tating the  opposite  opinion  by  affirming  as  he 
does^^  that  the  lengthy  formal  Rule  of  the  Clares 
in  twelve  chapters,  confirmed  by  Innocent  IV  in 
1253,  was  based  substantially  on  an  earlier  one 
written  by  St.  Francis  in  1224.  This  opinion  is 
quite    unsupported    by    historical    evidence,    and 


Saint  Clare.  19 

has  been  the  source  of  many  mistaken  and  mis- 
leading conclusions. 

Certain  it  is,  moreover,  that  Innocent  III  never 
approved  any  Rule  for  the  Poor  Clares.  This 
has  been  shown  so  conclusively  by  Lemmens^s 
that  it  would  be  superfluous  to  insist  upon  it  here. 
But  it  will  hardly  be  questioned,  I  suppose,  that 
St.  Clare  obtained  from  Innocent  III,  either  in 
writing  or  viva  voce,  a  confirmation  of  the  "Privi- 
lege of  Poverty,"  since  this  is  asserted  in  her 
Testament  and  borne  out  by  her  Legend.  In 
fact  there  are  several  indications  that  she  did 
obtain  such  a  grant  through  the  medium  of  St. 
Francis  in  1215,  and  it  seems  to  have  been  after 
St.  Francis  returned  from  Rome,  in  that  year, 
that  St.  Clare  was  made  Abbess  at  S.  Damiano.^s 
It  will  be  remembered,  too,  that  when  Gregory 
IX  came  to  Assisi,  in  1228,  for  the  canonization 
of  St.  Francis,  he  visited  S.  Damiano,*"  and 
pressed  St.  Clare  to  so  far  deviate  from  the  prac- 
tice of  absolute  poverty,  which  had  hitherto 
obtained  there,  as  to  make  some  provision  for 
the  unforeseen  wants  of  the  community  during 
the  bad  times  which  had  fallen  upon  Italy.  But 
St.  Clare  would  brook  no  compromise.  "If  thou 
fearest  thy  vow,"  said  the  Pope,  "we  release  thee 
from  the  vow."  "Holy  Father,"  answered  Clare, 
"absolve  me  from  my  sins  if  thou  wilt,  but  never 


20  The  Rule  of 

do  I  wish  to  be  released  in  any  way  from  following 
Christ  for  ever."  This  reply  was  entirely  charac- 
teristic of  St.  Clare.  Perhaps  her  fortitude  seemed 
to  go  beyond  prudence  at  times,  yet  it  was  in 
reality  the  prudence  of  the  Gospel.  That  Pope 
Gregory  was  deeply  attached  to  St.  Clare,  whom 
he  venerated  as  a  Saint,  his  letters  to  her  bear 
eloquent  witness,^'  and  in  September  of  1228  we 
find  him  so  far  yielding  to  her  views  as  to  grant 
St.  Clare  the  famous  "Privilegium  Paupertatis, '* 
by  virtue  of  which  she  might  never  be  constrained 
by  any  one  to  receive  possessions  for  her  Order. *2 
True  to  her  convictions  and  consistent  in  her 
aims,  we  find  St.  Clare  and  the  fifty  sisters  who 
were  with  her  at  S.  Damiano,  in  1238,  executing 
an  instrument  by  which  they  appointed  a  pro- 
curator to  make  over  to  the  Chapter  of  S.  Rufino 
a  piece  of  land  near  Bastia  that  had  been  be- 
queathed to  them.*3 

In  the  early  days  of  the  Order  the  Poor  Clares 
subsisted,  as  we  have  seen,  entirely  on  alms,  but 
after  definitive  enclosure  was  imposed  upon  them, 
about  1219,  their  needs  were  supplied  by  certain 
friars,  usually  a  Father,  to  attend  to  the  spiritual 
wants  of  the  community,  and  one  or  more  lay 
Brothers,  whose  duty  it  was  to  go  in  quest  of  food 
for  the  Sisters.*^  That  St.  Clare  had  nothing  more 
at  heart  than  the  continuance  of  this  arrangement. 


Saint  Clare.  21 

which  served  as  a  bond  of  union  between  the 
Minorite  "brethren  and  sistren,"  may  be  seen 
from  a  passage  in  the  last  chapter  of  her  Rule,  in 
which,  after  telling  of  St.  Francis'  solicitude  for 
herself  and  her  Sisters,  at  the  outset  of  their  reli- 
gious life,  she  pleads  "  for  the  love  of  God  and  the 
Blessed  Francis"  that  the  services  of  a  chaplain 
with  one  companion  and  two  lay  Brothers  may 
always  be  granted  to  the  Sisters  "to  assist  them 
in  their  poverty.  "^^  This  pathetic  request  reveals 
the  anxiety  the  holy  Abbess  felt  because  of  the 
movement  already  on  foot  among  the  friars  in 
favor  of  giving  up  the  care  of  the  Clares,  and  which 
culminated  in  a  decree  of  the  Chapter  General  of 
Pisa,  in  1263,  "ut  omnino  dimitteretur  cura 
sanctimonialium  Damianitarum  sive  Clarissa- 
rum.  "^^  Already,  in  1230,  Gregory  IX  had  for- 
bidden any  of  the  friars  to  visit  the  monasteries 
of  the  Clares  without  his  permission. *7  This  pro- 
hibition came  as  a  sad  blow  to  St.  Clare,  as  she 
took  special  delight  in  the  sermons  of  the  early 
companions  of  St.  Francis,  who  often  went  to 
preach  at  Damiano.  "He  might  as  well  take 
all  the  friars  from  us,"  she  exclaimed,  "now  that 
he  hath  taken  those  who  furnished  us  with  the 
food  of  the  soul,"  and  she  forthwith  sent  away 
even  the  Brother  questors  who  provided  bodily 
sustenance  for  her  community.     When  the  Pope 


^2  Saint  Clare. 

heard  this  he  at  once  raised  his  prohibition,  and 
the  close  relations  that  had  existed  from  the  out- 
set between  the  companions  of  St.  Francis  and 
the  Abbess  of  S.  Damiano  continued  so  long  as 
St.  Clare  lived,  for  we  learn  from  her  contem- 
porary biographer  that  she  had  the  happiness  of 
being  assisted  by  three  of  them  in  her  last  hours. 
While  St.  Clare  was  striving  to  keep  the  old 
order  of  things  intact  at  S.  Damiano,  much  of  it 
had  fallen  elsewhere;  and  among  the  secondary 
causes  which  tended  to  bring  about  at  least  some 
changes  in  the  disciplinary  evolution  of  the  Order 
it  will  not  perhaps  be  superfluous  or  uninterest- 
ing to  suggest  one  which  I  do  not  remember  to 
have  found  mentioned  before,  namely:  the  num- 
ber of  Benedictine  nunneries  like  Vallegloria,  S. 
Angelo  in  Panzo,  and  S.  Paolo  at  Spoleto,  which 
embraced  the  new  institute  of  the  Poor  Ladies. *8 
What  I  w^ant  principally  to  observe  is,  that  this 
influx  of  religious  from  another  Order  which  had 
its  own  traditional  observances  deeply  rooted  for 
centuries  cannot  be  ignored  as  one  of  the  external 
influences  that  was  at  work  in  the  elaboration 
of  the  Rule  of  the  Clares.  By  no  means  do  I 
imply  that  this  influence  made  for  greater  laxity. 
But  it  was  inevitable  that  these  former  Benedic- 
tines, left  to  themselves  amid  their  old  surround- 
ings, should  drift  back,  so  to  say,  into  something 


Saint  Clare.  23 

more  or  less  resembling  the  mode  of  life  they  had 
been  leading  before  becoming  Clares,  and  which, 
however  conformable  it  might  be  to  the  Rule  of 
St.  Benedict,  was  quite  foreign  to  the  first  inten- 
tion of  either  St.  Francis  or  St.  Clare.  Their 
eagerness  to  follow  the  Rule  drawn  up  by  Ugo- 
lino,  which,  being  based,  as  we  have  seen,  on  that 
of  St.  Benedict,  came  more  naturally  to  therii, 
testifies  to  this  imperfect  fusion  of  disparate 
elements. 

Doubtless  the  fact  that  no  attempt  was  made, 
up  to  the  time  we  have  been  considering,  to 
impose  anything  like  a  uniform  observance  of 
their  Rule  upon  the  Clares,  goes  far  to  explain 
why  we  hear  of  no  mystic  disputes  or  clash  of 
opinions  amongst  them  on  the  subject,  such  as 
rent  the  Order  of  Friars  Minor  at  a  very  early 
period  of  its  history.  We  catch,  however,  an 
echo  of  these  contentions  whenever  any  attempt 
was  made  to  impose  another  observance  upon  the 
Clares  than  that  to  which  they  had  been  accus- 
tomed. A  typical  case  of  this  kind  is  that  of  the 
Clares  of  S.  Angelo,  at  Ascoli,  who  appealed  to 
the  Holy  See  against  an  effort  to  force  them  to 
accept  a  later  "formula"  of  life  than  the  one  they 
had  received  from  Gregory  IX;*^  whereupon 
Innocent  IV^^  decreed  that  they  might  not  be  mo- 
lested as  regards  their  observance  of  the  Rule. 


24  The  Rule  of 

Later  on,  indeed,  the  Clares  felt  the  effect  of  the 
divisions  among  the  friars.  Meanwhile,  in  pro- 
portion as  the  Order  increased  and  spread,  the 
difficulty  of  subsisting  entirely  upon  alms  became 
greater.  To  meet  this  difficulty  several  Commu- 
nities applied  to  the  Holy  See  for  permission  to 
possess  property  in  common.  In  this  connexion 
Innocent  IV  issued  two  Bulls.  One  of  these, 
dated  1245,^1  approved  the  Rule  composed  in 
1219  by  Ugolino,  which  was  based  on  that  of  St. 
Benedict,  with  the  addition  of  particular  consti- 
tutions; the  other,  dated  1247,^2  omitted  any 
reference  to  the  Rule  of  St.  Benedict,  and,  while 
requiring  poverty  from  the  Poor  Clares,  indivi- 
dually, authorized  the  possession  of  property  in 
common.  Once  again  St.  Clare  appealed  to  the 
Holy  See  that  S.  Damiano  at  least  might  still 
possess  the  privilege  of  not  possessing  anything, 
and  Innocent  IV  permitted  her  and  all  who 
wished  to  follow  her  example  to  practise  the  most 
absolute  poverty. ^^ 

This  brings  us  up  to  the  year  1253  and  to  the 
third  stage  in  the  history  of  the  Rule  of  St.  Clare. 
It  was  on  9  August  in  that  year,  and  only  two 
days  before  her  death,  that  Innocent  IV,  no  doubt 
at  the  reiterated  request  of  the  dying  Saint, 
solemnly  confirmed  the  definitive  Rule  of  St. 
Clare,  by  which  the  treasure  of  the  '*Most  High 


CJ 


Saint  Clare.  25 

Poverty"  was  transmitted  intact  to  those  who 
came  after  her.^*  This  definitive  Rule  appears 
to  have  been  based  upon  the  observances  which 
had  gradually  grown  up  at  S.  Damiano  round 
about  the  primitive  formula  vitae  and  upon  the 
instructions  received  from  the  Holy  See  at  differ- 
ent times,  and  was  cast  into  a  legislative  form  by 
Cardinal  Rainaldo  of  Segni,  afterward  Alexander 
IV,  but  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  it  was  revised 
by  St.  Clare  herself,  and  that  parts  of  it  are  her 
very  own.^s  Her  hand  is  especially  noticeable 
in  those  passages  where  the  impersonal  style  of 
the  legislator  is  dropped,  as,  for  example,  where 
she  refers  to  herself  as  the  "little  flower  of  the 
most  Blessed  Father  Francis,"  or  where,  at  the 
end  of  Chapter  II,  she  makes  a  touching  appeal 
to  the  Sisters  "for  the  love  of  the  most  holy  and 
most  sweet  Child  Jesus  wrapped  in  poor  little 
swaddling  clothes,"  etc.,  etc.,  "that  they  be  al- 
ways clothed  in  poor  garments." 

But  this  rule  of  1253  was  adopted  in  compara- 
tively few  monasteries  of  the  Order;  the  greater 
number  of  the  Clares  continued  to  follow  the  Rule 
drawn  up  by  Cardinal  Ugolino,  which,  as  has  been 
said  before,  was  confirmed  by  Ugolino  himself, 
after  his  accession  to  the  Papal  throne,^^  as  well 
as  by  his  successor  Innocent  IV.^^  In  1263, 
Urban  IV  practically  revived  this  Rule  of  Ugolino,^^ 


26  The  Rule  op 

and  was  fain  to  impose  it  upon  the  whole  Order 
in   the   interests   of   uniformity .^^     Several   Com- 
munities, however,  which  were  following  the  Rule 
of  1253  without  dispensation,  obtained  leave  from 
the  Pope  to  continue  in  that  observance.     In  the 
course  of  time  this  latter  Rule  became  the  excep- 
tion, and  in  our  own  day  the  modified  Rule  of 
Urban  IV  is  most  generally  followed  throughout 
the  Order.     But  we  are  not  now  concerned  with 
the  later  history  of  the  Rule,  and  I  must  content 
myself  here  by  noting  that,  in  addition  to  the  Rule, 
different    divisions    of    the    Order    have    received 
special  constitutions  of  their  own.     Thus,   some 
of  the  Clares  follow  the  Constitutions  drawn  up 
by    St.    Colette    (d.    1447),   whilst   others   follow 
certain  Constitutions  given  by  the  Capuchins  to 
the  branch  of  the  Order  founded  at  Naples  by 
the  Ven.  Maria  Longo  (d.  1542).     There  are  still, 
therefore,  several  observances  in  the  Order  of  St 
Clare,   inasmuch  as  it  includes  all  the  different 
monasteries    of    cloistered    nuns    professing    the 
Rule  of  St.  Clare,  whether  they  observe  it  in  the 
form  approved  by  Innocent  IV  in  1253,  or  accord- 
ing to  the  dispensations  of  Urban  IV,  or  conform- 
ably  with   the   Colettine  or   Capuchin   Constitu- 
tions.60    Taken  as  a  whole,  the  Order  of  St.  Clare 
numbers,  at  present,  11,330  religious  and  has  599 
monasteries.     Some  of  these  foundations  are  still 


Saint  Clare. 


27 


under  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Ministers  General 
of  the  Friars  Minor;  others  are  under  episcopal 
jurisdiction,  while  the  Monastery  of  St.  Clare  at 
Assisi,  the  present  Mother  House  of  the  Order,  is 
now,  as  in  the  past,  under  the  immediate  author- 
ity of  a  Cardinal  Protector. 


NOTES 

^  "Only  one  thing  is  disappointing  in  this  book,"  says  the  London 
Tablet  (15  October,  1910)  in  a  review  of  my  Ldfe  of  St.  Clare,  "the 
critical  foreword  to  the  Rule.  We  should  Uke  to  know  more  about  its 
history  than  the  translator  has  chosen  to  give  us.  With  his  vast 
knowledge  of  Franciscan  documents,  Father  Paschal  Robinson,  we 
feel  sure,  might  have  thrown  much  clear  light  upon  a  difficult  subject 
in  Franciscan  literature.  But  perhaps  he  is  reserving  himself  for  some 
future  essay." 

^  Cf .  the  Bull  Sicut  manifestum  est  of  16  July,  1229,  in  Bullarium 
Franciscanum,  Vol.  I,  p.  50.  As  late  as  1750  the  original  of  the  Bull 
was  preserved  at  Monteluce,  but  when  I  visited  that  monastery  in 
1908  not  a  single  document  was  to  be  found  there.  No  doubt  many 
MSS.  and  books  formerly  at  Monteluce  are  now  mouldering  in  obscur- 
ity in  the  cellar  of  the  Communal  Library  at  Perugia. 

'  By  the  Bull  Quoniam  vi  ait  A-postolus  of  12  April,  1230.  Bull. 
Franc,  I,  p.  59. 

<  By  the  Bull  Ah  Ecclesia  of  27  July,  1230,  ibid.,  p.  81.  In  many 
instances  the  only  records  of  some  of  the  monasteries  of  the  period 
that  remain  are  the  "privileges  granted  to  them." 

^  Cf .  Catholic  Encyclopedia,  Vol.  IV,  St.  Clare. 

®  Cf.  Miiller,  Die  Anfdnge  des  Minorilenordens  (Freiburg,  1885),  pp. 
33  ff.;  Ehrle  in  Zeitschrift  f.  k.  Theol,  XI,  743  S.;  Van  Ortroy  in  A.  B., 
XVIII,  294  ff . ;  E.  d'Alengon  in  Etudes  Franciscaines,  II,  646  ff . ;  Man- 
donnet,  Les  Regies,  etc.,  de  I'Ordo  de  Poenitentia  au  XIII  sihcle  in  Opus, 
de  Crit.  Hist.  I-IV  (1902). 

''  In  this  biography,  which  was  written  about  1250  and  edited  by 
Muratori,  Gregory  is  spoken  of  as  having  "instituted"  the  Poor  Ladies 
and  the  Third  Order.  See  Script.  Rerum  Italicarum,  t.  Ill,  p.  575. 
So,  too,  Thomas  of  Celano  speaks  of  the  "wondrous  life  and  glorious 
institution  of  the  Clares"  which  they  received  from  the  Lord  Pope 
Gregory,  then  Bishop  of  Ostia.  Cf.  I  Cel.,  chap.  VIII,  n.  20  (Ed. 
d'Alenyon,  1906),  p.  23. 

28 


Saint  Clare.  29 

*  Cf.  article  on  the  Franciscan  Order  by  the  present  writer  in  Calh. 
Encyclopedia,  Vol.  VI,  pp.  217  ff. 

'  Testam.  B.  Clarae  in  Seraphicae  Legislationis  Texlus  Originates 
(Quaracchi,  1897),  p.  274. 

10  See  I  Celano  (Ed.  E.  d'Alengon),  c.  VIII,  §  18,  p.  21. 

"See  Cavanna:  UUmbria  Francescana  Illustrata  (Perugia,  1910), 
pp.  40-42;  and  pp.  133-136. 

^  In  a  work  entitled  "La  Vergine  S.  Chiara  di  Asisi  monacha  prima 
del  patriarca  S.  Benedetto  e  dopo  del  Serafico  P.  S.  Francesco,"  which 
is  refuted  by  P.  Antonio  da  Orvieto  in  his  "Cronologia  della  Provincia 
Serafica  Riformata"  (Perugia,  1717),  Mb.  II,  p.  108. 

"  Regula  S.  Clarae,  Cap.  VI;  in  Seraph.  Legis.,  p.  62.  Pope  Gregory 
IX  also  refers  to  this  forynula  vitae  in  the  Bull  Angelis  gaudium  of  11 
May,  1238.     Cf.  Bull.  Franc,  I,  p.  242. 

"  Wadding,  B.  P.  Frandsci  Assisiatis  Opmcula  (Antwerp,  1623). 
Epist.  IV,  p.  17.  See  also  Van  Ortroy  in  Analecta  Bollandiana,  t. 
XXIV,  fasc.  Ill,  p.  412. 

15  Vie  de  S.  Frangois  (Paris,  1894),  p.  179. 

1*  This  long-lost  document  was  found  at  Assisi  in  1893  hidden  in  the 
sleeve  of  St.  Clare's  habit  which  was  preserved  as  a  relic.  (See  Robin- 
eon,  The  Life  of  Saint  Clare,  1910,  p.  xlviii.)  Were  it  only  endowed 
with  speech,  what  tales  this  venerable  roll  of  parchment  might  tell! 

"  Cf.  Sbaralea:  Bull.  Franc,  I,  p.  671,  n.  c. 

^  The  letter  in  question  is  given  by  Boehmer:  Anal,  zur  Gesch.  des 
Fr.  von  Assisi  (1904),  p.  94,  and  by  Sabatier:  Spec  Pref.  (Paris, 
1898),  Appendix. 

19  Cf.  Actus  B.  Frandsci  (Ed.  Sabatier),  chap.  XV;  Fioretti,  chap. 
XIV;  Liber  Conformit.     (Ed.  Quaracchi),  p.  353. 

20  The  Life  of  St.  Clare  (1910),  p.  127. 

^English  Historical  Review,  No.  C  (Oct.,  1910),  p.  776;  see  also 
Caih.  Book  Notes,  Vol.  XIV,  No.  154  (15  Sept.,  1910),  p.  276. 

22  For  an  account  of  the  spread  of  the  Order  during  the  lifetime  of 
St.  Clare  see  Wauer,  Entstehung  und  Ausbreitung  des  Klarissenordens 
(Leipzig,  1906),  passim. 

23  The  Brief  addressed  by  Honorius  III,  to  Cardinal  Ugohno  on  27 
Aug.,  1218,  is  of  the  utmost  importance  for  understanding  this  develop- 
ment.    Cf.  Bull.  Franc,  I,  p.  1. 

2*  Cf.  Chronica  Fr.  Jordani  (Ed.  Boehmer,  Paris,  1908),  pp.  12-13. 
25  Cf.  Wadding:  Annates,  ad  an.  1219,  n.  47. 


30  The  Rule  of 

26  Con.  Lat.  IV,  Can.  XIII. 

"  Cf.  the  Bull  Cum  universitati  vestrae  of  21  Aug.,  1244,  I.  c.  I,  p.  340; 
also  Potthast:  Reg.  Pont.  Roman.,  t.  II  (Berlin,  1875),  N.  11451,  and 
Archivum  Francis.  Historicum,  I,  p.  417. 

^  And  "accepted,"  as  he  tells  us  later  on,  by  St.  Francis.  See  the 
Bull  Angelis  gaudium  of  11  May,  1238.     Bull  Franc,  I,  p.  243. 

^  By  the  Bull  Sacrosancta  Romana  Ecdesia  of  9  Dec,  1219,  Bull. 
Franc,  I,  p.  3. 

^  Cf.  the  Bull  Cum  a  Nobis  of  17  Dec,  1238,  Bull.  Franc,  I,  p.  258. 

^^  Cf.  the  Bull  Angelis  gaudium  of  11  May,  1238,  in  Bull.  Franc,  I, 
p.  243. 

'2  Ibid. 

^"Prout  S.  Pater  noster  Franciscus  ea  nos  celebrare  singulariter 
admonuit,  tibi  transcribo. "  For  the  text  of  this  letter  cf.  Acta  Sancto- 
rum, Mart.  I,  505.  See  also  "The  Writings  of  St.  Clare"  in  Archivum 
Francis.  Historicum,  III,  p.  439. 

^Opuscula  (Ed.  1623),  t.  II,  pp.  189-202.  It  may  be  noted  that 
Wadding  invokes  (p.  189)  the  authority  of  the  Firmamentum  Trium 
Ordinum  B.  Francisci,  a  somewhat  polemic  compilation  published  at 
Paris  in  1512. 

^  Cf.  De  Origine  Seraph.  Religionis  (Rome,  1587),  p.  3,  where  he 
says:  "Cui  (Clarae)  et  Regulam,  qui  primam  vocant,  Franciscanae 
fere  consimilem,  ex  Generalium  Capitulorum  decreto  compositam  at- 
que  post  modum  a  Gregorio  IX  Pont.  Max.  vivae  vocis  oraculo  con- 
firmato,  confirmatum,  praefixit. " 

^*  Cf.  Opuscula  S.  P.  Francisci  (Quaracchi,  1904),  p.  IX. 

"  Legenda  S.  Clarae  Virginis  tratta  dal  MS.  338  della  Bibl.  Comunale 
de  Assisi  (Assisi,  1910),  c  IV. 

^*Lemmens:  "Die  Anfjinge  des  Clarissenordens "  in  Romische 
Quartalschrift,  t.  XVI,  p.  97  fif.  This  article  called  forth  a  rejoinder 
from  Lempp,  in  Zeitschrift  fur  Kirchen.,  t.  XXIV  (1903),  pp.  321-323. 

'^  Joergensen:  Saint  Francois  d' Assise,  Paris  1910,  p.  193. 

«>  Cf.  I  Celano  (Ed.  d'Alen^on),  §  122;  Legenda  S.  Clarae  (Ed.  Pen- 
nacchi),  p.  22. 

^  Two  of  these  letters  are  given  by  Wadding,  Annates  ad  an.  1221, 
n.  XX,  and  1251,  n.  XVII. 

*2  The  text  of  this  unique  privilege  is  found  in  the  Bull  Sicut  mani- 
festum  est  of  17  September,  1228;  Bull.  Franc,  I,  p.  771;  n.  29  al. 
CCCXLVI  and  Seraph  Legislat.  Text.  Orig.,  pp.  97-98;  also  Arch. 


Saint  Clare.  31 


Francis.  Historicum,  I,  p.  416,  where  the  original  document  is  described 
in  detail. 

^The  original  of  this  Instrument,  which  has  preserved  for  us  the 
names  of  all  the  Sisters  forming  the  Community  at  S.  Damiano  in 
1238,  was  in  the  possession  of  the  Dean  of  S.  Rufino  at  Assisi  when 
Wadding  wrote  (See  Annales  ad  an.  1238,  nn.  XIV-XV).  But  it 
seems  to  have  disappeared  before  1795.  At  least  there  is  no  mention 
of  it  in  the  very  complete  MS.  Inventory  of  the  archives  of  S.  Rufino 
made  in  that  year  by  Frondini  and  which  I  have  been  able  to  examine 
at  length.  Nor  is  there  any  trace  now  at  S.  Damiano  of  the  early  copy 
of  the  Instrument  which  Wadding  saw  there. 

*^  These  friars,  who  came  to  be  known  as  "zealots  of  the  Poor  Ladies, " 
generally  dwelt  in  a  small  hospice  adjoining  the  Monastery,  and  this 
usage  still  prevails  in  Italy  wherever  the  primitive  observance  survives, 
as  in  Foligno  and  Gubbio.  Not  a  few  of  the  details  embodied  in  the 
present  article  are  taken  from  the  records  preserved  in  these  two 
monasteries,  more  especially  from  an  early  treatise  on  the  Rule  I 
found  at  Fohgno  and  from  a  MS.  Memoriale  "scritta  con  fatiga"  in 
the  archives  at  Gubbio. 

*^  Cf .  Regula  S.  Clarae,  cap  XII  in  Seraph.  Legislat.  Textus  Orig., 
p.  74. 

^Cf.  Ehrle  in  Archiv  fur  Litt.  u.  Kirchengeschichte,  VI  (Freiburg, 
1896),  p.  37. 

*'  By  the  Bull  Quo  elongati  of  28  Sept.,  1230,  where  he  interpreted 
the  words  of  the  Rule  of  the  Friars  Minor:  Chap.  XII,  "Quod  Fratres 
non  ingrediantur  monasteria  monacharum"  as  extending  also  to  the 
monasteries  of  the  Clares.     Cf.  Bull.  Franc,  I,  pp.  68,  70. 

^  Cf.  Wadding:  Annales  ad  an.  1212,  n.  24;  also  Bull.  Franc,  I,  p. 
32,  n.  c. 

*^  In  the  Bull  Cum  omnis  vera,  24  May,  1239,  Bull.  Franc,  I,  p.  263. 

*In  the  Bull  Nostra  decet,  19  April,  1253,  addressed  to  Rainaldo, 
Bishop  of  Ostia. 

^1  Cf.  the  Bull  Solet  annuere,  13  Nov.,  1245,  Bull.  Franc,  I,  p.  394. 

^2  Cf.  the  Bull  Cum  omnis,  5  Aug.,  1247,  ibid. 

^  The  firm  stand  St.  Clare  made  to  preserve  Holy  Poverty  for  her 
Order  is  finely  told  by  F.  Cuthbert,  O.S.F.C,  in  his  admirable  Intro- 
duction to  Mrs.  Balfour's  Life  and  Legend  of  the  Lady  Saint  Clare  (1910), 
pp.  11-31. 

^  Cf.  the  Bull  Solet  annuere,  of  9  Aug.,  1253,  in  Bull.  Franc,  I,  pp. 


32 


Saint  Clare. 


671  ff.;  251  ff.,  where  the  text  is  given  after  that  found  in  the  Firmam. 
Trium  Ord.  The  text  of  the  original  document  was  first  published  in 
Seraph.  Legislat.  Text.  Orig.,  pp.  49-75.  See  also  Eubel  Epitome 
(Quaracchi,  1908),  pp.  251  ff.,  and  Cozza-Luzi:  Chiara  di  Assist  sec- 
ondo  alcune  nuove  scoperle  e  documenti  (Rome,  1895)  passim.  A  com- 
parison of  this  Rule  with  the  earlier  one  contained  in  the  Bull  Cum 
omnis  vera  of  25  May,  1239  {Bull.  Franc,  I,  263)  is  full  of  interest. 

^  Cf .  Lemmens,  1.  c,  p.  118. 

^  By  the  Bull  Cum  omnis  vera,  25  May,  1239,  Bull.  Franc,  I,  p.  263. 

"  By  the  Bull  Solet  annuere,  13  Nov.,  1245,  ibid.,  I,  p.  394. 

^  By  the  Bull  Beata  Clara,  18  Oct.,  1263,  ibid.,  II,  pp.  509-521.  It 
is  not  without  significance,  surely,  to  find  Urban  IV  in  an  earlier  Bull 
referring  to  Gregory  IX  as  a  co-founder  of  the  Order:  "Ordinem  S. 
Damiani  almus  Confessor  beatus  Franciscus  et  fel.  rec.  Gregoriua 
Papa  IX  in  agro  Ecclesiae  plantaverunt."  See  Bull  Licet  ex  injuncto, 
14  July,  1263.  Ibid.,  II,  p.  474.  And  Philippus  Perusinus  in  his 
"Catalogo  Cardinalium  qui  fuerunt  Ordinis  Protectores"  says:  "Ipse 
[Gregorius  IX|  cum  B.  Francisco  .  .  .  ordinaverunt  et  scripserunt 
regulam  Sororum  Ordinis  S.  Damiani."  See  Analeda  Fran.,  Ill 
(Quaracchi,  1897),  p.  710. 

^^  Shortly  before  (27  July,  1263),  he  had  approved  a  modified  form 
of  the  Rule  of  St.  Clare  for  the  nuns  at  Longchamps,  founded  by  the 
Blessed  Isabella  of  France,  sister  of  St.  Louis  the  King.  See  Bull. 
Franc,  II,  pp.  477-486;  also  Berguin:  La  Bienheureuse  Isabelle  de 
France  (Grenoble,  1899),  and  Duchesne:  Histoire  de  I'Abbaye  Royale 
de  Longchamps  (Paris,  1904). 

*"  The  Annunciades  and  the  Conceptionists  are  in  some  sense  off- 
shoots of  the  Order  of  St.  Clare,  but  they  now  follow  different  Rules 
from  that  of  the  Poor  Ladies. 


■•-iwrj 


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